Synopsis:
Emma can’t fall for a player.
But Tyler’s game is proving difficult to ignore.
Fate takes a slap shot at Emma’s heart when she finds a driver’s license outside a grocery store belonging to none other than Tyler Bowen. The center for her brother’s hockey team with looks that scream plenty of scoring off the ice.
Her overprotective brother warns her to stay away, but after a particularly patronizing comment, Emma decides to break free from the defense. Sean has always tried to control her relationships, and at twenty-nine, she’s had enough.
Emma convinces Tyler to mess with Sean and pretend they’re in a relationship for just one night. Little does she know that Tyler has a surprise in his playbook. He needs Emma’s assistance to face a formidable his father, the ultimate player of hearts.
It was supposed to be all fun and games, but when the photography studio Emma works for is sold unexpectedly and Tyler’s dad offers her a job, she realizes she may have glided too far into enemy territory.
Review:
I picked up Against the Boards because I wanted a shorter read between ARCs. It was a welcome break from intense fantasies, but I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it as much as I thought I would.
While I liked that it was so short, I do think this made the plot suffer. Against the Boards is marketed as a fake dating romance, but this plot lacked substance for me. Too many people knew they weren’t really dating so it didn’t feel like there were any risks involved.
The phrase ‘against the boards’ was used like an SEO keyword. It’s said in most chapters, multiple times. I think one chapter used it four times in short succession. I’m assuming this is a hockey term so it makes sense to be used, but it was way too often.
Emma’s character in particular wasn’t great. She was constantly putting down other women and being massively judgemental of them and was generally very immature. The amount of unnecessary drama she brought to Tyler’s life was ridiculous (more on that below). She loved to jump to conclusions and the various ‘rage cleaning’ montages was hilariously annoying. I can’t actually believe how many different types of cleaning activities were described during this book.
On the other hand, I really liked Tyler. He seems like a genuinely sweet guy and he was really going through a lot. There’s nothing wrong with the life he leads. Yes, he ‘dated’ a lot of women, but he never did anything to hurt them. Based on what was said about this, he was always very honest about what he wanted and I don’t see anything wrong with that.
I really liked the idea of this book, but unfortunately it wasn’t executed too well. If the fake dating part was made more apparent I think I would have loved this. Well, also if Emma wasn’t so annoying.
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